December 1 was World AIDS Day, when activists around the world come together to raise awareness of the global HIV epidemic, fight stigma and discrimination, and advocate for increased efforts to support comprehensive HIV education and prevention.  Please sign our petition urging President Obama to commit to an AIDS-free generation.

All this week, Amplify, youth activists are holding a blogathon in honor of World AIDS Day.  Please read, share, and contribute!

Meanwhile, Advocates' staff have contributed to a number of articles online, weighing in on what we can all do to support HIV education, prevention, and care.  

New info on HIV among adolescents and young adults from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that young people represent a quarter of all new HIV infections.

• "Nearly 60% of new infections among youth occur in African Americans, about 20% in Hispanics/Latinos and about 20% in whites.
• About 70% of youth were infected with HIV through male-to-male sex, 20% from heterosexual sex, 4% from injection drug use and about 4% from a combination of male-to-male sex and injection drug use.
• Young gay and bisexual men and African Americans are hit harder by HIV than their peers.
• About 86% of young females got HIV through heterosexual sex and 13% from injection drug use.
• The percentage of youth tested for HIV overall was 12.9% among high school students and 34.5% among those aged 18–24 years; it was lower among males than females, and lower among whites and Hispanics/Latinos than blacks/African Americans."

More later on this; but it's clear that while we are making progress, young people, especially the most vulnerable groups, must be given better tools to protect themselves from HIV -  and barriers to prevention, treatment, and care must be dismantled. 

by Nicole Cheetham, Director, International Division

Last week the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) released its 2012 State of the World Population report entitled, “By Choice Not By Chance: Family Planning, Human Rights and Development.” For me, what’s special about this year’s report is how it positions family planning as a human right that is central to development. The report’s title reflects a right’s perspective well---that is, deciding if, when and how many children to have should be a choice that everyone can make throughout their lives, not only a choice that some can make or that can only be made some of the time. The report sheds light on critical trends and shifts in sexual behavior that impact universal access to reproductive health; articulates barriers that prevent equal access to quality family planning services; articulates the many benefits of family planning; provides recommendations; and unabashedly brings particular attention to the often overlooked rights of young people and other specific groups.

While a rights-based framework to family planning was first articulated and affirmed by 179 governments in the 1994 Cairo the Programme of Action at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, almost 20 years later, this right continues to elude millions around the world, especially young women. As noted in the report, unmet need is highest among the 300 million adolescent women between the ages 15 and 19. Even when using contraception, across all countries, the discontinuation rates among adolescents are about 25 percent higher than those for older women. Furthermore, the risks of childbearing for both mother and infant are highest for adolescent mothers and adolescents and youth account for approximately 40 per cent of unsafe abortions worldwide.

by Emily Bridges, Director, Public Information Services

UNAIDS released a report in advance of World AIDS Day with hopeful news about the epidemic: there has been nearly a 50 percent reduction in new infections across 25 low and middle income countries. In Africa, AIDS deaths have been cut by one-third. And around the world, in the last two years 60 percent more people have been able to access HIV treatment. As UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe put it, “We are moving from despair to hope.”

Young people are a key part of this progress.